New wave of immigrants expected soon

MIAMI – With each day that passes, the chances of Congress agreeing on how to overhaul the nation's immigration laws grow dimmer. What members of Congress need to realize, though, is that another massive wave of illegal immigration is forming and rapidly headed to our shores.

The Senate

passed a sweeping immigration bill

last summer, but the Republican-led House of Representatives has done nothing in the 10 months since. House GOP leaders have refused to take up the Senate bill, ignored a similar bill filed by House Democrats and have only

introduced "principles"

of what their version of an immigration bill should look like.

Meanwhile, there is growing consensus that changes in the economies of Latin America and the U.S. are creating the perfect climate for another wave of undocumented immigrants racing north.

A

report released last week

by the Inter-American Development Bank raises serious questions about the future of Latin American economies.

A slowdown in the Chinese economy would lower commodity prices around the world, which would hammer Latin American countries that for years have reaped profits selling to the Chinese. The slow-but-steady economic recovery in the USA could also hurt Latin American economies because of rising interest rates and the U.S. Federal Reserve slowing its bond purchases in the region.

Add an improved outlook in U.S. sectors that tend to lure low-skilled immigrants, like construction and retail, and the conditions are ideal for unemployed Latin Americans trying to find work in America.

"There will be more pressure for immigrants – both legal and illegal – to come to the United States," says Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based, non-partisan think tank that tracks migration around the world.

Illegal immigration slowed sharply during the U.S. recession. With jobs drying up and more Border Patrol agents manning the expansive border with Mexico, the size of the undocumented population in the U.S.

fell from 2007 to 2010

, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

But mounting evidence shows that illegal immigration is back on the rise.

There is no question that passing an immigration overhaul is incredibly difficult. And there are legitimate disagreements holding up the process, namely how to deal with the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.

But there is widespread agreement that the government must enhance border security and revamp the legal immigration system to provide more visas to foreign workers to fill gaps in the U.S. labor market.

If Congress fails, the only certainty remaining will be that we're on the verge of another wave of illegal immigration.